Goodwin 1st MRB

WTF is that!~?

And the chick in his spray is too cold to hold!

No such thing truly exists. There is only wanton greed & sexual desires.

I always try to thank every uniformed person I see. I don't really care the time/place, but I make sure to offer them my thanks. I have nothing but respect for all the men/women who choose to serve.

This - is true. HOWEVER - the 'federal agency' in charge of printing money, is a BUSINESS. It's not a GOVERNMENT RUN 'agency' - They charge us to print the money - we OWE them to print money that we COULD have an actual government agency run. They are as 'federal', as 'federal express'. Why does America do this? Also, in previous years the fed's had to reveal how much money was printed each and every year - so that everyone knew and could tell exactly where our dollar stood and it's value. Ex-Pres George Bush signed something into effect allowing them NOT to have to disclose how much money was printed, making our money even more prone to speculation - thus decreasing (or falsely increasing) it's value and making it more of a guessing game (which in essence hurts our dollar, a lot). I hope no one holds my opinions against me, when I say that our government is full of corruption, and the American people are lied to on an almost daily basis - and the majority of Americans are believe a LOT of those lies. It's scary. The only way this stuff will change, will be another Revolution - and it's coming! If you look at the state of our union, and then look historically at every other democracy ever - we're approaching the end. And our current movements which lend themselves to a socialistic vision are proof of that. Our country was founded with AMAZING forethought, and our forefathers gave us EXPLICIT rules to keep the democracy they created humming along smoothly - we have disobeyed pretty much everything they've said (and if you dig, you can find the exact quotes from our forefathers). But Americans just keep on 'living the dream', and pretty soon 'the dream' is going to be what screws each and every one of them. I hope our country gets back on track, but as I've said before - this county is so far 'gone' from it's original values and ideals, nothing less than revolution or a complete WIPE of the current elected officials will even begin to change us for the better. Democrat? Republican? Why even argue, either side would be doing essentially the same things in office right now, and the party out of office would claim "their party" would be doing it differently - but that's not true. People are so caught up in dems vs. repubs these days, they don't realize they're both wolves in sheeps clothing. We need to wake up! Sorry for the hijack. The new money does look very cool

Meh; Doesn't much matter anyhow - the hacks will still try and hack, and the "Federal Reserve" will still be a money making machine that prints as much funny money as it wants for greedy Americans! I still find it pretty shocking many people don't realize that the 'federal reserve' is it's own business (kind of like 'federal express') and that they charge us for the money they print for us... we could print it ourselves without paying someone else to do it, but we don't... why? There's a whole lot of corruption upstairs that most people don't even realize. And that's a damn shame. So with that said, I hope the counter fitters can beat it

meee toooo!!!!

Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea and I have the same birthday, and we're both bassplayers! =-O ) Rollins Band (The Metro in Chicago is AWESOME!) Dave Matthews Band (I asked my high school english teacher to one of them, she originally said yes, but backed out at the last minute for fear of someone finding out) x2 Rush (Probably tied for best show I've ever seen) Foo Fighters Bella Fleck & the Flecktones (one of the most talented bands on the planet!) Apartment 26 (opened for Rollins Band, and did pretty well I thought...) ...and I've played too many shows with local bands all over Chicago & IL to remember who the hell they all were. Jammed a little with some of the dudes from Russian Circles - that was a blast! They opened for Tool a couple times and had some cool stories.

Gratz Collins! Keep playing your heart out - you'll get to where you really wanna be soon!

Well, sadly, there really is a lot in the world that is 'who you know'... that's just a sad fact of life. Example? I've been playing music for over half the time I've been alive (guitar & bass). I've been in bands, playing some form of shows, almost that whole time. I'd like to think I can play a lick or two, and that I am for the most part, a damn fine player. A kid I was in a band with - was a horrible player. We'd have to drop songs because he couldn't learn his parts on some of the songs (which we gave him the easiest parts to learn)... it was a total bummer. Now? Well, he lives in Nashville and is recording. Why? He made friends with the right people and kissed enough ass that someone gave him his chance. I'd love that shot - I'd KILL for to have that shot. But I just don't know those people. I have a singer I worked with out of Canada, and "my" drummer whom I've played with in many bands, and we recorded an entire cd's worth of material a few years back. And the recordings sound better than 75% of most bands demo's out there. We also have another cd's worth of material that has yet to be recorded. I've sent our demo out, but have never heard back - why? I just don't know those people. It sucks - for sure. But, it's a fact of life. As KissMe said - if you want it - you'll keep going for it. And I guess you hear most about things like this... just keep having fun. Make it fun, do your best, and eventually if it's meant to be, it will happen. I'm sorry to hear about it, but keep your chin up, and keep charging hard. Use this as motivation to get better.

x2. Better get to cleaning the shotgun, sooner (rather than later) I'm sure those boys will be stoppin by.. Kids grow up way too fast.

Oh man, I just bought a keyboard about 6 months ago. I play it fairly frequently - but wish I knew music theory and how to read music. I've tried repeatedly to teach myself to read music but I just can't do it. I generally just listen to a song a LOT and figure out the notes by ear. I'd love some tips/help on figuring out how to do it much easier than that

That was hilarious! I've always thought it was much more 'manly' & 'productive', to keep trucking even if injured IMO. Kinda like the great Walter Payton - dude cracked ribs on a play, and had to have a teammate help him up, but he went straight to the huddle and kept playing. Tough Mofo. On a professional level, you SHOULD be tough like that IMO.

Chicago, IL. Well, a suburb - but people just know the big daddy town

Not sure if they're up your alley, but - I found that the band Live had a really fun cd to learn - it was Throwing Copper. It was (is) one of my top 5 favorite cd's of all time, and one of my first guitar books I ever bought. I learned that thing cover to cover. And it helped a lot with learning bar chords. Fairly simple, straightforward music with a pretty easy beat/rythm and a great way to learn. I also learned Stairway to heaven by Led Zeppelin (and I had the guitar books to all of their cd's). Focus on learning open chords at first, and just practice a LOT. For the first 7 or 8 years I was learning, I played at LEAST an hour, every single day. Now I just don't have the time, and will sometimes not play for a few days in between.

Happy birthday Luna!

Well, I figure I should post... Here's a pic of me and my girl doing our sprint Triathlon last year (it was her first tri ever, my 2nd). The water was 55 degrees... imagine pouring the coldest water you have outta your tap into a tub... then imagine it quite a bit colder... then imagine swimming 1/2 a mile in water that cold wearing nothing but a speedo! Everyone else has wet suits - but I'm way too cheap for that crap. Going to try and do a half-ironman this summer, or maybe a full if my training continues to go well. This is a pic from a few days ago, I decided a haircut was in order.

Squier's are like the 'economy' version of a Fender Strat. Their hardware is downgraded, electronics downgraded, etc. A guy I was in a band with years and years ago had a squier, and that thing was CONSTANTLY falling out of tune and had lots of little weird quirks that I just couldn't find a liking for. For just casual play it was fine, but if you started hammering on it for solo's and/or live performance it just seemed lacking. It was just stock however, and I'm sure with some mod's it would've made it much more acceptable versatile. Since we were constantly switching roles (some songs I'd play guitar, he'd play bass, others it was vice-versa) it eventually got phased out and we just used my guitars for everything. The 'buzz' you speak of can easily go away! You might need a new nut, or just might need the truss rod adjusted a bit. Any experienced tuner can do either of those very easily - especially the truss rod adjustment! The truss rod adjusts the 'bend' in the neck, the nut adjusts string height and works with your intonation to ensure good sounding notes that are clear up and down the fretboard. A new nut can take a while because it has to be cut (usually from bone, although some people prefer graphite), and glued, and then everything has to be measured very carefully, and adjusted, and re-adjusted. A truss rod might take a few days to 'settle' after being adjusted, but it usually can help small buzzes right away.

Nice! I've got 3 tats myself, would love to add some more to the collection.

I do wanna know - Greco and others who have really high DL & amazing uploads, who do you go through for your internet? I'm not opposed to paying more, if I can see those kind of astronomical increases.

I don't think that makes you gay. Does make me gay?

Very cool - congrats! Glad everyone came out okay!

No longer needed to downgrade, you can go to nvidia's site - they have updated drivers. Also, Engle: To find out which version of video drivers you're running: Right click on "my computer" (or 'computer' in vista) - select 'Properties' Select 'Device Manager' from the left hand column (towards the top) Click on 'Display Adapters' - right click your video card and select 'Properties' Select the 'Driver' tab at the top; check the driver version (e.g. mine is Driver Version: 8.17.11.9713) It also shows you the 'Driver Date' which is good in helping to determine if your drivers are old even if you don't know the current versions.

Wow, glad I read that. Going to downgrade now. I've been running those drivers for around a month now - no issues so far, but better safe than sorry!

True, as someone else posted, what you play is an IMPORTANT factor into what kinda guitar you want to get... I love them semi-hollows - those things are fucking AWESOME!